Heat

The Power Outage At The AT&T Center: Epilogue

LeBron James of the Miami Heat addresses the media during media availability as part of the 2014 NBA Finals on June 6, 2014 at the Spurs Practice Facility in San Antonio, Texas. (Source: Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Game 1 of the NBA Finals has come and gone and while the air conditioning may finally be fixed inside the AT&T Center you can bet that the Miami Heat are still stewing over their 15-point loss to the San Antonio Spurs. The Heat played a solid game and led the Spurs by seven with 9:24 to go before withering away in the hot box that was the AT&T Center.

The power issues in San Antonio are certainly the big story following Game 1. Let’s take a look at some of the different topics being discussed that are a direct result of the issues at the AT&T Center on Thursday night.

Air Conditioning Fixed – A disaster that nobody could’ve anticipated greatly affected Thursday’s Game 1 and continues to be a point of emphasis when discussing the results. Thankfully it appears that the problem has been solved…at least for now.

Spurs Sports & Entertainment released this statement on Friday afternoon.

“The electrical failure that caused the AC system outage during Game 1 of the NBA Finals has been repaired. The AC system has been tested, is fully operational and will continue to be monitored. The upcoming events at the AT&T Center, including the Romeo Santos concert tonight, the Stars game on Saturday night and Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday, will go on as scheduled. We apologize for the conditions in the arena during last night’s game.”

Temperatures rose to upwards of 90 degrees on the court and the players suffered greatly, as did everyone in attendance. Fans could be seen fanning themselves with whatever they could find for the entirety of the evening.

LeBron speaks about Thursday’s leg issues– Nobody suffered more from the heat then LeBron James did. Fighting cramps for most of the night, James asked to come out of the game several times but most noticeably during the fourth quarter. He left the game briefly mid-way through the quarter but came back and immediately converted on a nice driving layup.

That would be the last play James would make, landing underneath the basket after his layup unable to move. The Heat called timeout and while James made an attempt to get to the bench his legs wouldn’t cooperate and he would have to be carried.

LeBron didn’t speak to the media following Game 1 but he was made available on Friday when the Heat did some video work at the Spurs training facility. Here is what he had to say on the subject, and give him credit for opening with a joke (though Heat fans may not find it very funny).

“If I had to say today, I would probably be out on Sunday. I probably won’t play.” (James then paused for a moment while a room full of jaws hit the floor)

“No, I’ll be all right,” he smiled. “I’ll be in uniform on Sunday. I should be 100 percent on Sunday.”

As for how he’s feeling today, James had this to say:

“I’m pretty sore right now just from the muscles spasming up, and they’re starting to release, but I’m pretty sore in my legs,” he said. “What I went through the last twelve hours was getting up and using the restroom a lot. I got two and a half bags of IV [Thursday] night right after the game. So between 2 a.m. and 11 a.m., I got up about six or seven times. So obviously I got no sleep.”

“I’ve never played an NBA game like it was [Thursday] night as far as the heat,” James added. “Not an excuse but it was an extreme condition. I looked at the stands at one point and I saw every last fan having fans, double entendre, waving fans and I knew at that point, this is something different.”

In response to those who have been blaming LeBron for not properly hydrating himself and thus suffering from the cramps, he simply said this: “I always hydrate. Every time I’m out, I’m hydrating every timeout.”

Gatorade sends out tweets criticizing LeBron during Game 1– If you follow the official Gatorade twitter account then you may have noticed a couple of tweets directed at James on Thursday night. When LeBron came out of the game during the fourth quarter of Game 1, the Gatorade account tweeted this to its followers: “We were waiting on the sidelines, but he prefers to drink something else.”

The “something else” they are referring to is Powerade. Several years ago Gatorade tried to sign LeBron to a sponsorship deal but in the end James choose to go with Powerade instead.

The Gatorade account wasn’t finished with James just yet. A tweet came in asking Gatorade why their product wasn’t helping James to recover from his cramping issue and they responded with this:

“The person cramping wasn’t our client. Out athletes can take the heat.”

It didn’t take long for the powers that be at Gatorade to notice what had been said on its twitter account. They quickly released a statement apologizing to James and the Heat.

“Our apologies for our response to fans’ tweets during [Thursday] night’s Heat vs. Spurs game. We got caught up in the heat of the battle. As a longtime partner of the Miami Heat, we support the entire team.”

Former Miami Dolphins lineman Jonathan Martin also sends LeBron a message on twitter– The Gatorade twitter account wasn’t the only one jumping on James for coming out of the game on Thursday as Jonathan Martin also had a few words for LeBron.

The former Miami Dolphins offensive lineman and epicenter of the bullying scandal that rocked the team last year took to twitter and had this to say: “With that said… C’mon bruh. Drink a Gatorade & get out there”.

Martin deleted the tweet but as we all know, once it gets out there its out for good. He also tried to cover his tracks, sending out a few positive tweets following his criticism of LeBron.

“Lebron haters goin ham right now lol”

“My money’s still on the Heat winning the series tho”

“And Lebron still gonna be finals MVP”

While I’m sure Heat fans all over South Florida appreciate the gesture, it may be best for Martin to keep his focus on making the San Francisco 49ers 53-man roster.